SHERRIF ARPAIO
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 25, 2010
- 9,539
- 5,919

Brazil 1970? Wonderful, but too obvious. France ‘98? Pah. Spain 2010? Nope.
Ignore the ‘best team not to have won the World Cup’ label - the best team in the history of the World Cup full stop was Brazil 1982.
It’s not unheard of for the finest team to be the one that isn’t the last man standing. But Brazil in 1982 did something more than record a glorious failure.
They played the game the way the Selecao should play it, were stuffed full of incredible individuals, and were architects of their own downfall.
Brazil were so good they had to beat themselves to lose.
Key to their appeal was that for British viewers at least, very little was known about them. Zico was the superstar most of us had heard of, but aside from one or two others, they were an unknown quantity.
So, when the class of 1982 took to the field, we expected the cliché of proper ‘samba soccer’.
But boy, did we get it. To a backdrop of pulsating drums, the searing heat of a Spanish summer, and under the bright floodlights of Seville, Brazil dazzled through the first group stage. With flicks, tricks and sublime footwork they beat the Soviet Union 2-1.
But, the Brazilian coach was Telê Santana. He did not substitute anyone, and he did not even tell anyone to retreat. The Brazilian team continued with the same plan: being agressive to win the match. At 30', Paolo Rossi scored his third goal in the match.
Italy won by 3 x 2. Brazil returned home.
Much has been written about that match.
FIFA considered Italy 3 x 2 Brazil one of the classic games of all World Cups.
Brazil looked unbeatable. They scored phenomenally great goals. But who were these geniuses in unfeasibly tight blue shorts?
Who were these magicians who probably went direct from the Copacabana beach to the Maracana and then straight back again for a spot of keepy-uppy with bikini-clad beauties from Ipanema?
But it was Brazil that were truly loved. Even Jimmy Hill, the daddy of TV pundits at the time and not a man over impressed by fripperies, was wooed.
In a special BBC Christmas review of the tournament six months later, Jimmy finished the tear-jerking segment on Brazil’s epic failure with the line ‘Brilliant, weren’t they?’.
Yes, Jimmy they were. They flew too close to the sun and cruelly crashed and burned, but they were easily the best team at the tournament, and moreover the best team of all. Ever.
Source: FIFA documentary


